NEWMAN – The Newman Police Department is rolling out a new look starting Friday, with updated uniforms, patches, badges and, over the coming months, black-and-white patrol vehicles.

Rank-and-file officers took the lead in what Police Chief Adam McGill has deemed the department’s “extreme makeover” project, coming up with new patch and badge designs, and selecting a uniform style that will lend consistency to the look of the officers.

In meeting with officers individually and as a group after becoming Newman’s police chief this spring, McGill said, it quickly became clear that the department wanted a new image and a new identity in both the community and regional law enforcement circles.

“We are doing that through our work as a department and, for my part, being more involved with the other chiefs in Stanislaus County,” McGill explained. “One of the other ways to instill that pride and professionalism is through the visual makeover.

“They wanted a new badge and a new patch, and I asked them to tell me as a group what they wanted to wear,” he went on. “They talked about it for a month or two, and came up with the designs that we are using.”

The new look is straightforward.

“Our new patch is very simple, which is what we wanted,” McGill commented. “The patch still reflects the city’s history and logo, but it also makes it very clear who we are. That’s what we wanted.”

Each officer will also be assigned a badge number, which will stay with them and essentially be an ID number.

“In the past, the officers would come in and trade badges. They were all banged up, and they weren’t really treated with any real sense of pride,” McGill said. “That’s not who we are any more. We want to be the best.”

McGill also asked that the officers select a uniform style that all would wear.

“The uniforms were my thing. When I got here, I found that I could line up three or four officers and see that they were all wearing different types of shirts,” the chief recalled. “I asked them to determine which brand and style of uniform shirt they wanted to wear, and that we were all going to wear the same shirt after Aug. 1. A lot of our officers were wearing ‘utilities’. You won’t see those any more after Aug. 1, unless they are authorized for special operations or inclement weather. Otherwise, it will be a Class B uniform.”

Collectively, McGill said, he believes the uniform consistency, new patches and new badges will polish the department’s image and project a greater professionalism.

The final piece in the makeover, however, may be the most visible to the general public.

The department is repainting its patrol vehicles to a basic black-and-white look, the chief said.

“The officers felt like police officers should drive black-and-whites,” McGill remarked.

“We have begun the process of transitioning our cars over. It is another source of pride for the officers, and it is a more visible deterrent. The black and white cars really catch your eye.”

A Tahoe used as a K-9 unit has been on patrol, he added, and “is really turning heads.”

The department’s makeover is also grabbing the attention of other law enforcement agencies.

“We’re getting a lot of double-takes, and a lot of attention, with the changes that we are making,” McGill said. “It is exciting.”

The benefits, McGill remarked, could be far-ranging and long-lasting.

“This also goes to the issue of recruitment and retention, which this department has struggled with for a number of years,” he commented. “This has been a well-known training ground for other departments, and we want to turn that around.”